We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Myles Jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Myles below.

Alright, Myles thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Growing up as a child, you think of the adults around you as superheroes.

Their powers?

Healing. Strength. Speed. Always being there to rescue you when you need them. Seemingly being immune to your attacks. Healthy, unless known otherwise. You don’t think of them as someone who might leave your side, or at least anytime soon rather. You picture them being there for important events in your life, high school graduation, college move-in, and the birth of your first child. The list goes on.

While I’ve known for as long as I can remember that my maternal grandfather has battled prostate cancer and I experienced the loss of other loved ones early on – like an uncle for instance who I was to learn to fish and hunt from – it wasn’t until the loss of my father and watching the declining health of his mother that I began to understand the meaning of life, the importance of finding your purpose and the importance of health.

I was 8 years old when my father died of a heart attack. Almost 20 years ago but I still remember it like it was yesterday. He played baseball and I tried calling him before his game but it was too late. I missed him. I figured he would call back in the morning since it was late, or at least by that evening, and let me know how the game went and I could catch him up on what I had been up to and what I had planned for our upcoming trip together. I was excited. What I didn’t expect, was a call from my aunt the next morning informing my mother that my father had died of a heart attack during his game the night before. I was distraught. My best friend who was here when I closed my eyes was no longer, and would no longer, be there when I opened my eyes. I was terrified. How could someone so healthy, who plays sports just like me, is fit just like me, that looks just like me, suddenly drop dead? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I was angry. No one would talk to me about what I was feeling, so I bottled things up. And I was confused.

This led to my first, non-sport-related, experience with fitness. Because of my fear of poor health outcomes, lack of communication around my feelings, inappropriate displays of emotions – mostly rage and anger, and overwhelming grief, I started working out to escape. I mentioned my maternal grandfather has battled prostate cancer my entire life that I can remember. Well, he had all sorts of books on different diets, stretches, exercise routines, a treadmill, 3 and 5-pound dumbbells, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat with all sorts of additional stretches and ab routines on it. His basement became my gym and his bookshelf my source of research. The idea was if I could just train hard enough, work out long enough, and get strong enough, I would be healthy and escape any poor health outcomes that may come my way. But more importantly, I thought I could out-train my grief.

Soon after my father passed away, his mother became ill. I watched for 3 years as my grandmother battled kidney disease. Clueless as to what I could do to help. I remember vividly the times I spent with her at dialysis, and how sick she would get throughout treatment. I wanted to be there for my superhero. But at the time, I was powerless. And then she too passed away.

I hadn’t even begun truly processing the death of my father, and now I have to process the death of my grandmother as well. I did what any logical 11-year-old would do. I shut down, created a shell around myself, and stayed within it for years. My only thought was how can I stop this from ever happening again?

3 years later. At a small box gym down the street from my high school, I found my answer. While I couldn’t stop the people around me from dying, I could help them to control and manage their health and hopefully avoid poor health outcomes, and live longer. I started sneaking into the gym to work out and watch the trainers. I was lucky enough to get a job working the front desk just before Christmas of my freshman year. Best job ever.

I would skip school to hang out at the gym, work out, and shadow the trainers. I learned a lot and experienced a lot within the 4 walls of that gym. Without that opportunity, while I believe I would have still been called to work in the fitness and nutrition space, I don’t think I would have excelled the way I have early on in my career.

Years later, I began to reflect back on that period of my life and what it meant to me, how it impacted me, and look at it through a more positive and grateful lens. It was during this period of reflection that I began to think that fitness, while it had the power to heal and be therapeutic, was not the end all be all to health and that it could not replace the need for traditional talk therapy. I started digging deeper into my why, which from childhood had not changed, “stop this from ever happening again.” I realized something, I had to let go of control, dive deeper into that thought process, and find the words that 11-year-old me truly meant when he made that statement. It wasn’t “stop this from ever happening again,” it was “be the superhero my superheroes needed.” My dad, my grandmother, my grandfather, and others around me, didn’t always have the tools, knowledge, resources, or support system needed to truly live long and healthy lives. I realized that my why wasn’t to stop people around me from dying, but rather to help those around me so that they can possibly stop an 8 or 11-year-old child from experiencing the grief, heartache, and confusion I did growing up.

That why, “be the superhero my superheroes needed,” led me to my mission which was to transform the way people connect with and view health and fitness while advocating for better, more accessible, healthcare and healthcare practices. In doing that I’ve created a business that caters to in-person and online coaching clients via our private member-only app and gym facilities, corporate wellness programs, and custom fitness amenities for multifamily communities, and donates 15% of its profits to charitable organizations working to further our goals of better health worldwide. I also do a lot of advocating for mental health, especially in early childhood through adolescent and male populations, and one group that I try to gather as much support for as possible is Camp Erin. A non-profit that helps children experiencing parental loss through bereavement camps.

Looking back, I would have wanted things to have happened any other way in my life. Sure, it would have been easier, with less heartache and confusion, and better memories early on. But those experiences made me who I am today. They have taught me to face major adversity, reflect and look inward, and the value of finding and pursuing your passion and purpose. Simply put, they made me turn lemons into lemonade, a process that not everyone knows how to master. And by doing that, I opened myself up to being able to teach that same principle and more to others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am the founder and owner of New Image Wellness Co., the author of ‘The Beginning is Now’, and a speaker. I work with individuals to help them level up their fitness and eat better without restrictive diets and nutritional rules. While not all my clients’ goals are weight loss, I help my clients lose weight while eating cake – or whatever other food they love – while also helping them to feel leaner, healthier, fitter, stronger, and more confident.

My company works with businesses to lower employee burnout, reduce healthcare costs, and improve productivity and profitability. And we also help optimize community health by providing valet wellness and custom fitness amenities to multifamily communities. Our mission is to transform the way people connect with and view health and fitness while advocating for better, more accessible, healthcare and healthcare practices through our private members-only app and gym facilities.

After starting with nothing, no equipment, no facility, no capital. My company has grown organically from training in the park, in-home sessions and whichever gym wouldn’t kick us out, to renting space at our own facilities and developing a private app for our online clients.

I spent almost a decade working in various gyms as a trainer, or training manager, and what I learned was that the overarching issue with the fitness industry was that it was too weight and aesthetic-focused, and not driven by what I felt should be the core principles of a health and fitness business and the pillars of wellness. Behavior change, transparency, inclusiveness, empathy, science-backed, client-centered approaches, and a holistic approach.

So, I left corporate fitness after landing my dream job with my dream fitness company, to pursue my vision of what health and wellness could and should be, full-time.

I created an online community that supports and uplifts one another, with clients from all over the world. I’ve connected with and begun working with organizations such as Kidney Solutions 501(c) to provide much-needed resources and information to special populations. And I’ve helped thousands of people who were desperately trying to improve their health, eat better and transform their bodies, gain confidence, reach their goals and go on to inspire other people to do the same.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Management. But more importantly, leadership, much like medicine, coaching, and nutrition is a practice. Something that must always be worked at to improve your skills, but more importantly your team’s ability to believe in themselves, the task at hand, and their ability to perform at high levels. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and resources trying to understand the true essence of leadership. What it takes to bring the best out of people and manage successful teams. What I’ve discovered is that most people get it wrong. Most people think that management and leadership are more about telling than doing, which is where most people, admittedly even me early in my career, get it wrong.
Telling the team what they need to do to achieve the monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. Telling them what they needed to do in order to improve. Telling the team what they needed to do in order to push the company forward. Finding more importance in your title and position than actuallying being a successful leader. Separating yourself from your team, or as some would call them your “subordinates”.
There’s something wrong with that picture of leadship, yet unfortunately, it is how most people manage teams. I know this because I’ve seen it countless times throughout my career in wellness, and through our business’s corporate wellness programs.
The “bossy”, “demanding”, and “ingenuine” managers, often have the teams with the highest turnover rate, lowest performance, poorest work/life balance, highest stress levels, and lowest morale.
However, managers who have genuine relationships with their employees, engage with and work with them, and promote collaboration, are the leaders whose teams outperform the others time and time again.
Likely because they start with why. Something I picked up from Simon Sinek over the years.
Instead of telling the team what they need to do to reach the large goals, improve, and push the company forward, they start with why it’s important to the team member to do so.
They understand that leadership is not an ego game and they foster enviornments where team members feel compentent and encouraged to grow, evolve, share their ideas and collaborate with others. Alternatively, managers who lead with an ego often feel as though their team is incompetent. Why? Because they’ve created dicsouraged others from presenting ideas that may threaten their own autonomy.
They understand that leadership means taking responsibility for failure and sharing the praises for success. That leadership and management is a selfless task and that you must be willing to put the needs of others before your own. Sir Philip Sidney, during the Battle of Zutphen, while lying injured and dying is quoted for saying “thy necessity is yet greater than mine,” as he gave his canteen of water to anther soldier. How true that story is, I’m not sure, but it is a great display of putting others needs before your own as a leader.
They understand that people mean more than things and profits. They are humble and willing to admit when they are wrong. They are patient, adjusting their expecations to meet the reality of the present circumstances, and meeting their team members where they are and working with them from there. They are encouraging and supportive.
Spending time understanding these qualities, and others that have set good leaders apart from great ones, has helped me over the years to truly grow as a manager and a leader. And I thinnk those are the simplest, and easiest places to start when it comes to being a great leader. Beyond that, you have to understand the intricacies of behavior change, creating a cadence of accountability, communicating to your team the wildly important goals and organizing the lead measures needed to progress towards them.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

You often hear about bootstrapping in business. About owners and entrepreneurs who empty out their savings or 401k to start their business, and maybe raise capital from a small group of friends and family. The way I started my business was no different. Except I didn’t have savings or a 401k to draw initial funds from. I didn’t have a friend group that could invest funds into my small business, and I didn’t have any supportive family members to go to that would help me find or secure funds either. I was a college student, starting my business out of my dorm room. And that was that. I never had a large investment or lump sum deposit to build my business off of.
But, I had a great work ethic.
I did my own branding, marketing, graphic design, website design, booking, billing and processing, and taxes. I did all of the customer service tasks on my own, promoting, and content creation. All the business-to-business outreach, community events, and networking, I did on my own.
Initially, I started writing programs and selling them for five dollars here and there. All that money went straight into printing flyers in the school’s print shop that I would post around locally and had out at parks and outside of gyms. Eventually, that lead to a few clients and boot camps at the park, giving me the opportunity to pitch my services to larger groups of people, while also marketing by attracting large crowds to watch as we worked out in the park. That lead to me picking up one-on-one clients, who I would train in the park or in their homes.
From there, scaling my business came down to my ability to grow genuine and authentic relationships with others. Clients would refer their friends and family to work with me. And 5 clients quickly turned into 10, 20, 40, and more.
And that’s it. It’s not a long story it’s actually quite simple. However, one thing I will say without a doubt is that I am grateful for experiencing my growth the way I did. It taught me to budget and live on less while reinvesting as much as I could back into the business. It taught me to value my clients and have outstanding customer service. It allowed me to perfect my systems and processes which made it easier for me to grow and take on new clients as my business expanded.

Contact Info:

• Website: newimmagewellnessco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodyby_mjay/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/New-Image-Wellness-Co-113940040362379/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myles-jackson-cpt-836825128
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr3wMiWcSLPqq0sgyk_3DsQ?

Image Credits
Clients – Emily S., Drew W., Lisa L., Rayan L., Brad W., Othello Rising Documentary